| Jane Worcester | |
| Death Date: | 8 October 1989 |
| Death Place: | Falmouth, Massachusetts |
| Field: | Biostatistics, Epidemiology |
| Work Institutions: | Harvard School of Public Health |
| Alma Mater: | Smith College, Harvard University |
| Thesis Title: | The Epidemiology of Streptococcal and Non-Streptococcal Respiratory Disease |
| Thesis Year: | 1947 |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Edwin B. Wilson |
| Awards: | Fellow of the American Statistical Association |
Jane Worcester (died 8 October 1989) was a biostatistician and epidemiologist who became the second tenured female professor, after Martha May Eliot, and the first female chair of biostatistics in the Harvard School of Public Health.
Worcester graduated from Smith College in 1931, with a bachelor's degree in mathematics, and was hired by Harvard biostatistician Edwin B. Wilson to become a human computer at Harvard. She was hired because of her strong background in statistics. They continued to work together on theoretical research in biostatistics until Wilson retired as chair of the department in 1945, eventually publishing 27 papers together. Worcester completed a Ph.D. in epidemiology at Harvard under Wilson's supervision in 1947; her dissertation was The Epidemiology of Streptococcal and Non-Streptococcal Respiratory Disease.
She joined the Harvard faculty, was granted tenure in 1962, and succeeded Robert Reed as chair of the Department of Biostatistics in 1974 until 1977, when she retired.
She moved to Falmouth on Cape Cod and died there on October 8, 1989 at 88 years of age.
She became a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 1960. In 1968, Smith College awarded her an honorary doctorate.